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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Shades of Life - Book Review

‘It was time to sit,
plan and execute a plan for survival. We had to accept this as a challenge’
reads one line in the beginning of this narration. The background to this
declaration is the knowledge of the fact that twelve and a half year old Aditya
has been diagnosed with acute kidney disease. While most people would have gone
crumbling along with their world, when hit with news of such a magnitude,
Aditya’s mother and family took it as a challenge that they eventually overcame
with extraordinary measures of optimism and healthcare.

Shades of life is a first person account of Aditya’s
struggle and subsequent recovery from
Renal Failure that caused him to lose function in both kidneys even
before adolescence. While it was the boy who suffered from the clinical
implications of the disease, his family – father, mother and elder brother,
suffered along with him, emotionally as well. Vasundhara Ramanujan’s moving
account, detailing her younger son’s condition and how it affected and changed
normal life for the family, is a revelation. Of how, the ring of suffering and
recovery is not just restricted to the patient but extends to his loved ones
who wish to see him heal and return to life as they once knew it.

The book is a trove of information on renal disease, a more
personal account rather than medical, offered from the point of view of
Vasundhara and her family. While a text book or encyclopedia might give you all
technical details of the condition and case studies to accompany, Aditya’s
story includes a different perspective. It gives you, in addition, the reaction
of a family, which until a stubborn headache, had a peaceful existence worrying
about the result of cricket matches and college admissions. You get to feel and
experience the patient side of the story, from the initial shock to coming to
grip with the condition and choosing to fight to live and live with better
health.

What worked for me:

1.
Short chapters with concise accounts of events.

2.
Chronological sequencing of experiences and
information that make this book more of a journal than a compilation of medical
inferences.

3.
The physician profiles at the end, detailing the
work and achievements of experts in the field that I am sure will be useful to
many.

4.
The honest tone of the book that does not at any
point of time attempt to be overtly dramatic.

What did not work for me:

1.
While being a science student puts me at an
advantage for understanding the medical terms and names of drugs listed in this
book, to a non-science reader, it does tend to come across sometimes as too
much detail.

2.
Some chapters have a final passage called
reflections, that goes on to explain in some more detail about the emotional
side of points covered in the text. In my opinion, I didn’t really find the
need to separate the passages. They seemed to convey the same kind of matter as
the rest of the chapter.

3.
The narration, fueled by a very emotional trove
of experiences tends to get monotonous at times. There are opinions, anger,
confusion and clarity from so many people closely involved with the problem,
not to mention Aditya himself and I couldn’t help but want for a tighter
script.

Verdict:

Shades of Life is a story of survival. Of how one family
braved it through two critical health problems that threatened to rob one of
their own, of holistic living. When you just can’t find that ray of sunshine in
your life, pick up this book. Aditya and
his indomitable spirit will help you through.Rating: 3/5